Marvel vs. DC

Chapter 1: Chaos in Central City

Has the whole city gone crazy? Barry thought as he raced to the third robbery that night. Sure, Central City wasn't the quietest place, but it had been a few hours since he had left the precinct, and he had yet to stop running. Barry arrived at Central City Jewelers, and immediately started casing the scene.

A crew of three, two with handguns drawn and the last putting jewelry in a bag with his firearm shoved in his pocket. Barry quickly took all three pistols and set them aside. Then, he handcuffed the three culprits. Now, to make sure they don't run off. He found a length of rope in the back of the store and tied all three to one of the cases. That should hold until the police arrive. He then rushed back outside and down another block into an alley, and finally came to a stop leaning against one of the walls, catching his breath. A few seconds later ... BEEP, BEEP. He pulled the Justice League communicator from his pocket.

"Another break-in. ... STAR Labs. Come on." He put the communicator back in his pocket with a sigh and ran off toward STAR Labs. He arrived outside STAR Labs a few seconds later in a burst of yellow lightning. Phasing inside, he ran over to an access panel and scanned for the intruders. The screen showed activity on the 12th floor in one of the prototype sections that dealt with speedforce research. Looks like they're going for something a little more high-end than jewels.

Without a second thought, he rushed up the stairs to the specified floor and ... onto a sheet of ice. Struggling to regain his footing, he slid down the hall and hit the wall hard. Crap. These guys again. He got enough footing to push off and ran onto the wall, but not before he took a blast of fire to the side from Heatwave. Barry ducked into the next room, wincing at the pain, but quickly pushed it out of his mind when a whirring sound alerted him to three tops spinning through the doorway. He phased through the wall to avoid the blast from the exploding tops and ducked to avoid Heatwave's next blast. Using the wall to propel him across the ice, he slid across the hall, caught himself with one hand on the wall and used the other to grab Heatwave and throw him down the iced hall. He sprawled against the wall, and was knocked unconscious. He then turned to face Top, but he had already fled into the next room. Avoiding the ice this time, he ran into the room and dodged both another volley of tops and two boomerangs. Thankfully this room was relatively empty of anything extremely breakable since it was one of the testing rooms that they had speedster-proofed in order to test the limits of The Flash's speed, or else the ensuing explosions might have done some serious damage.

"Don't you guys usually go after money and jewels, things you can easily make a profit off of?" Top simply smirked while Captain Boomerang threw three more boomerangs. Deftly dodging them, he rand around the duo, and then between them, leading the boomerangs straight to them. One of them hit Top in the head and knocked him out, but Boomerang caught the other two and engaged the Flash. With a flurry of blows, Barry quickly disarmed him, and then broke off to gain enough momentum to knock him out. Captain Boomerang threw another boomerang at him, but instead of deflecting the boomerang, he stopped short loosing his momentum, but avoided the boomerang, which exploded grey goo on the wall.

"Not this time, Harkness," Barry quipped, before running back and knocking him out.

He ran into the next room, which was full of scientific equipment. This was where most of the speedster tech was developed. It also had a large empty space in the middle in which now rested an ice ramp leading to the back wall. However, Barry deftly avoided it, as he had started to recognize a familiar pattern. Quickly dodging Mirror Master's bolts, he threw him across the room, where he landed next to Captain Cold.

"You guys really thought this would work a second time? I'm too fast of a learner for that." Barry smiled as he said that last part. As Mirror Master got to his feet, Barry raced toward Cold, dodging a few blasts on his way. He wrestled the cold gun from his hands and slid it up the ramp toward the wall, where it shattered.

He then turned to Mirror Master who shot a few more bolts at him. Barry moved to run around him, and Mirror Master moved to strike at where he would have been, if he didn't reverse his momentum to strike Mirror Master on his unguarded side. Barry came in with the punch and knocked him unconscious. In the millisecond that The Flash slowed down to do so, Captain Cold fired a shot that froze his feet together. As he struggled to keep his balance, Cold froze him in place.

"That's why I always carry a spare," Cold said with a smirk as he gestured to the pieces of the first cold gun on the ground.

"Very clever," Barry snarked back as he started vibrating to melt the ice, "But stealing a prototype is not as clever ... Unless someone paid for you to steal it in advance."

"That's the best part. We don't have to steal it. All we were hired to do was press a button." Snart smiled as he moved to the far end of the room, where the prototype lay. It was a large circular piece of machinery, whose function not even Barry knew.

"Press a button?" Barry asked incredulously. "Who hired you?"

"Don't know. And with as much as they paid us, I don't care." Cold looked the machine over, clearly searching for the button that would turn the machine on.

"How do you know it isn't a bomb that could blow up the city?" Barry asked, with a bit of fear starting to creep into his voice. He was almost free, but he had to keep Snart talking to stall him.

"The message assured us there wouldn't be any bombs involved." Cold assured him, vividly remembering the event that was the cause of The Flash's concern. "Trust me, after the last job we pulled at your museum, that would have been my first question."

"Well, I'm glad that it's not a bomb," Barry said with a bit of relief, "But I'm afraid that I will have to stop you nonetheless." He shattered the ice surrounding him, just as Snart found the button. Barry ran forward to stop him but was too late. The machine jumped to life with a burst of yellow and red lightning that quickly transformed into a blue portal that wobbled for a few seconds before steadying itself. Barry felt the speedforce bleeding from the portal. As it grew stronger, both men in the room had to hold on to something to avoid being knocked over by the windstorm it started to create. With each passing second, the strength of the wind grew until it was all they could do to hold on. Through the wind and flying papers, Barry saw a figure race from the portal, as his stomach dropped in fear and his blood began to boil with rage. The figure was wearing a yellow suit and trailing red lightning. Barry went into overdrive. He let go of the desk that he had been clinging to and allowed the wind to carry him upwards to the ceiling, which he used to catapult himself toward the machine. As soon as he hit the button, the windstorm ceased. He left the building in the dust, following the small glimpses of red until he found its source stopped in a dead-end alley.

"Hello Barry," Thawne said with a smirk. "How's your mother doing these days?"

"You son of a bitch." Barry growled. "How the hell are you even alive? I seem to remember Thomas Wayne putting a bullet through your head." He finished with a smirk.

"The speedforce grants many powers beyond simply running faster than the speed of sound. It can even bring you back to life, if you know how to use it." He put specific emphasis on the last phrase trying to goad the other speedster into making a mistake.

"You're not the only one who knows the speedforce Thawne." Barry responded, his anger and emotions pushing him to attack.

"Oh really?" Thawne responded in the most condescending manner possible. "Then prove it." With that, he raced past Barry back onto the streets of Central City with The Flash hot on his tail.